[00:00:00.220] - Chris
Wow. How many of you have listened to the Head, Heart, and Boots podcast? I can't tell you that reaction, how much that means to us. Welcome back to the Head, Heart, and Boots podcast. I'm Chris.
[00:00:11.640] - Brandon
And I'm Brandon. Join us as we wrestle with what it takes to transform ourselves and the businesses we lead. This new camera angle makes my arms look smaller than yours.
[00:00:21.020] - Chris
I'm noticing that, and I really appreciate it. I thought you did that on purpose.
[00:00:24.320] - Brandon
No, I don't. I didn't, and I am not happy with it. Hey, all, thanks so much for listening to the show, Hey, if you're not already following, please do so and ultimately share, right? Like the coolest currency that we have in terms of supporting this is share it with a friend, share it with somebody, a colleague, a peer, one of your downline team members. Let them be able to take advantage of the information you're already leveraging in your favor. And finally, guys, if you hear a show that really moves you, that really moves the needle, will you please leave us a review? Those five-star reviews help us a ton.
[00:00:58.330] - Chris
Right on. And listen, if If you're trying to grow your business, you might consider checking out Floodlight's business opportunity audit. It's free. We provided it no charge. It's actually what we use to assess new clients as they come in. It's a 110 point assessment for your business. And we've now decided to give access to the general public for it. So go and take our business opportunity audit at floodlightgrp. Com. It's going to help you identify the biggest gaps and opportunities in your business right now. And at the end, it'll assign you a health score to let you know exactly where your business stands right now. So go check it out, floodlightgrp. Com/audit, and take the Boa. It's a great way to get a pulse on your business.
[00:01:39.050] - Brandon
Hey, dude. How are you?
[00:01:40.460] - Chris
Good.
[00:01:41.160] - Brandon
Yeah, really good. Like, really, really good?
[00:01:43.650] - Chris
Yeah. I had my sauna and cold plunge this morning. Unfortunately, my son didn't sleep super well, so he opted out this morning.
[00:01:51.040] - Brandon
Oh, he didn't bring a bad mojo?
[00:01:53.540] - Chris
No. Into the sauna environment? No. He had a rough day at school yesterday. Yeah. Didn't sleep very well. It was a bummer. I missed having him in the sauna. But no, it was a good start.
[00:02:07.150] - Brandon
We have an interesting show today. Sometimes our team does custom training for our clients and often just industry groups and things like that. Wayne started a series this week for one of our clients' teams, larger client, pretty robust team. They've asked that we do some leadership training for their staff. He opened this 12-week experience with a nod to Jocco's extreme ownership. I want to get into it. I want to talk about it because it was interesting. These are topics or concepts that a lot of us have adopted or understand or have some version of how we apply it. It's amazing to me how misunderstood I think the concepts are. Or we do a great job of knowing in quotes, but we do a bad job of executing. And, and, or maybe as a key leader or someone higher up in the echelon, we hold ourselves to that standard as the owner or as a GM or as a key leader. But we don't really know how to communicate it in a way that creates value for our downline team. We just have trouble making that thing make sense. I just wanted to wrestle with it a little bit today.
[00:03:23.970] - Brandon
I think there's value in it. I think it's one of those concepts. It's like people can nod their head to, and I'm hopeful that people will stop and not listen out of assumption, but they'll listen for some new takeaway. So anyways, I want to wrestle with that. But before we get going, we have two important things we'd like to chat about, right?
[00:03:42.240] - Chris
Yeah, a couple of things. Lately, we've had more and more industry folks taking our business opportunity audit. Yeah. And you ask, what is that for all of you listening? Our business opportunity audit, it's a 110 point questionnaire that our consulting team has developed over the past year. Special nod to Scott Messura. He really brought that technology as an onboarding tool that he'd use with past clients and franchises that he consulted and so forth. And we saw it like, oh, my gosh. And so we've added to it. We've also then built it into our website platform. So now it's an online tool. You just simply go to floodlightgrp. Com/audit and click begin, I think is what it is, but it'll produce a health score for you. And I I think there's really two points of value. One, our team will reach out to you after you've completed the audit and do an integration call with you where they'll zero in on the biggest opportunities and also red flags that we discover from the results of that audit. There's no obligation. It absolutely is the top of our marketing funnel, so to speak, in that it is the way that we onboard consulting clients, but there's zero obligation to go through that.
[00:04:55.720] - Chris
So there's immense value if you join us for the integration call, but we've had a lot of people give feedback that it was valuable just to go and go through the questions. Yeah, absolutely. That it forced them to think through areas of their business that they hadn't been giving focus or consideration to. And just the act of completing the questionnaire held value. And so, one, if you're just looking to know, where do I stand compared to other restoration companies? What's the real health of my business? Because sometimes it's hard to see the forest through the trees, right? This is a great little pulse point for you, even if you opt out of an integration call with us. But if you have been thinking about hiring a coach, a consulting company, an advisor for your company to help you get from here to where you want to be, it's a really great way to start that process. So bloodlightgrp. Com/audit. We really need to create more one of those direct URLs like clever, businessopportunity. Com. Nobody else go buy that.
[00:05:52.280] - Brandon
That's ours. Go here, silly. One last thing I want to just bring up because we're really excited about it, and it's right on the horizon already. So So begins the season of events and conferences. The collective by core 2024 is right out on the horizon. So we're looking at July eighth through the 10th. That's going to be in the bustling metropolis of Austin. And last year was a banger. Previous year was good. Last year was super fun, had an awesome time. They had a killer keynote lineup intent. But in this year, they've got a real killer.
[00:06:30.110] - Chris
Oh, bro, I'm so excited about this guy.
[00:06:33.710] - Brandon
I mean, we're nerding out because we get to go and participate as an audience member to this gentleman's keynote. I'm not even going to... Well, I think they've started to make announcements. Oh, yeah, they promoted.
[00:06:43.740] - Chris
Yeah, Clint Pol Yeah. And go right now and search for Clint Polver in our Head, Heart, and Boost archive because we had an awesome podcast with him. He's written a great book, and he is of the all-time greatest live presenters that I have seen.
[00:07:04.760] - Brandon
It's an experience.
[00:07:06.050] - Chris
Oh, it's a full-on experience. It ain't a talk. Oh, man. It's all of the above, and it's really, really phenomenal.
[00:07:14.850] - Brandon
We're super excited. Yeah. Then, of course, Chris and I get to have some fun, too. For all of those that show up, we're going to be doing some breakouts and doing some teaching. Then, of course, we'll be hanging out with some of our strategic partners and just getting FaceTime with friends and acquaintances, which we love. Anyways, core Collective 2024, July eighth through the 10th in Austin. If you guys aren't already signed up and committed to going, Man, go. Sign up, go have a really good time, get some education, get some experience, network your face off, and come say hi to us. We love.
[00:07:46.130] - Chris
There's going to be some great breakout tracks of this thing. I'm really excited. I've got five breakouts that I'm doing. You have another five that you're going to be doing on a different topic. I just saw Marcy Richardson from Guarantee is going to be there. She's a real thought leader in that HR and culture space. I'm just so excited to see what Guarantee is up to, and she's been leading on. It's going to be a lot of fun. Listen, CORE knows how to throw a party. They do.
[00:08:12.740] - Brandon
Straight up. Austin does, too.
[00:08:14.800] - Chris
Oh, my gosh. Terry Blacks here.
[00:08:16.290] - Brandon
All the above. It'll be a blast. We're going to go and stay long and probably bring the brides and make a trip out. J.
[00:08:22.670] - Chris
W. Marriott again this year. All of you. Which has an awesome hotel gym for those of you care.
[00:08:26.500] - Brandon
That's right. Soreness abound. Okay, let's get into the show. Yeah. Okay. Jaco Willings, Leef Babin's extreme ownership. Just to give credit where credit is due, I want to be very crystal clear. This is a concept that he and his team have leveraged and made very popular. I think many, many people have heard the term and understand it or have heard the term. Let's unpack a little bit better about what it means. Then I want to dig in a little bit with you in terms of how we apply it as organizations, how we apply it and communicate it to teams as leaders. And I think part of that conversation is really centered around, how do we make it very clear the value proposition of this posture of extreme ownership and what it means? And just as a self-reminder, Wayne did a great job today. He was doing some training on this. Can you just remind me, story of a loaded weapon, okay? Metaphorical truth. There's something really interesting there that he did that I think applies here. So that's where we're going to go. Okay. Right out of the gate is, again, people talk about extreme ownership, but do we really understand what it means?
[00:09:38.620] - Brandon
I think there's two tracks. This is me personally, okay? I'm not speaking for anybody out there. I'm just saying for me. For me, I look at extreme ownership through two lenses. One is first an application for myself and my own personal life. And B, do I understand it clearly enough that I can communicate to my downline what the benefit is for them to adopt of something similar? And then maybe the last piece is, what is the organizational benefit when you have people living in this space on a consistent basis? Here's one way that I wrestle with this. I've been married 27 years. In a relationship with my wife, her and I are different people, different worldviews, different perspectives, different lifestyles. We were raised differently. There's all these different things about our in our world, in the world we operate in. Often, it's very realistic for her and I to not be in complete sync or to have a need that's not being met or a want or a distraction or whatever the things may be. I don't think our relationship is unique. Okay. No idea what you're talking about. For all of you that don't have this issue in your life- You're probably not married.
[00:10:55.000] - Chris
Exactly.
[00:10:55.500] - Brandon
You're single. That's right. Inevitably, conflict in relationship often comes from two people trying to get what they need and want out of a relationship, out of a partnership, out of the environment. One of the things that I've seen when I do it well and when is the key there, is that when you are in a relationship with two people that are seeking the other person's needs and wants, it's amazing that your needs and wants get taken care of. Okay. I think many adults that have been married for an extended period of time or in some mutually beneficial relationship, they can see how that works. If we could commit as a pair to do a really good job of prioritizing the other person as an example, we'll probably inevitably get what we want.
[00:11:48.000] - Chris
Can you keep your train of thought and me say something real quick? I think so. Okay.
[00:11:50.720] - Brandon
No problem.
[00:11:51.510] - Chris
There's an interesting thing that came to my mind is for many years, for a number of years in my marriage, I would have told you, Oh, I'm totally focused on my wife. I give her all the things she wanted. It was periods of these periods in our marriage where I was really frustrated because I felt like it wasn't coming back. In hindsight, what I realized when I got really honest with myself is that I was doing those things intentionally to elicit the response I wanted from her, which is totally different than what we're talking about.
[00:12:24.550] - Brandon
1,000%, yeah. That's a different show, though, my man.
[00:12:27.480] - Chris
That's a Pandora's box. Right.
[00:12:29.530] - Brandon
Anyway, That's a Pandora's Box. That's a Pandora's Box. That's a Pandora's Box. That's right. Anyways, that's a Pandora's Box. Okay. The lesson here or the way that we're going to tie this into extreme ownership is when both parties are pursuing this posture, the inevitable result is both parties win. That's the point of this. Extreme ownership, and Wayne did a great job of tying this in today. Extreme ownership is a posture. It's a commitment. It's a mental model. When the group is committed to it, the entire group benefits. Their needs get met because the entire team or group is committed to this mental model. Just like in a relationship, if I'm prioritizing taking care of the other, my needs get met. Extreme ownership is a similar posture. When you're in an environment with a team of people that are all aggressively taking extreme ownership, we all end up benefiting from that posture. That's one thing I want folks to hold on to as we get ready to dive into this. As an individual, extreme ownership, principally, is about ensuring that we never remove ourselves from having the ability to contribute, have a positive impact, navigate, and/or influence the things that are happening around us.
[00:13:57.210] - Brandon
Relationships, tasks, deliverables, you name Because what you do in this mental model of extreme ownership is you remove your ability to put your hands up in the air and say, I'm waiting on, it's up to so and so.
[00:14:13.580] - Chris
I'm at the effect of all these other things around me. That's it.
[00:14:16.280] - Brandon
I'm at the effect. I'm a victim to circumstance. I no longer have ability to contribute. The reality of it is that that is never actually true. Okay? This This is where the metaphorical truth came in. Wayne crushed this. Basically, his comment was, and I'm going to do a bad job of summarizing that, but the idea is that there are things that even if they're not technically true, the benefit of living as if they are is outweighs the negatives. Okay, so hang in there. You ever heard the term treat every weapon as if it's loaded? Oh, yeah. Is every weapon actually loaded? No. No, of course not. Do we know that? Yes. We know that in technical terms, it is absolutely a fact that not every single weapon on the planet right now is loaded. We know that going in. It's a metaphorical truth. We know that. But the benefit to us to acting as if every weapon is loaded is unmeasurably better than not.
[00:15:27.400] - Chris
100%.
[00:15:29.000] - Brandon
Extreme ownership is similar in practice. It is a reality that is it possible in most situations that we are technically waiting on this or need this to happen or whatever? Yes. But the reality of it is that the benefit of me living in that posture will always yield me a better result than not. Oh, bro. Does that make sense?
[00:15:55.690] - Chris
Yeah, absolutely. One of the things this reminds me of is Jim Bethmer, he talks about this in Leading Above the Line. He talks about creating a feedback-rich environment. How important it is as a leader to not filter others' feedback that's coming from our downline and our peers to not filter it by their level of experience, their level of seniority, their level of education, which we all do. Whenever somebody tells us what they think about our output or our business or whatever, we instantly, in internally are filtering based on how much credibility we give that person. And he said an important shift for leaders that really are trying to explore the edge of their leadership influence is to instead begin saying, not is this true or valid, but how is this true or valid for me? Which I think is an example of that extreme ownership. I think so, too. It's starting from the premise of, I've got something to learn or affect here. There is something for me to do. There is some responsibility for me to take in this situation.
[00:17:09.470] - Brandon
That's right. And that's the beauty of it, I think, is there's this reality of no matter how you spin it, you could what if this thing to death? I think the challenge that we have, and we actually talked about this with the group that participated is, it's very easy for us to jump to all the reasons why. And they're legitimate. We're a team of people that all have different roles. And yes, we are interdependent on others to do their job well.
[00:17:40.780] - Chris
Someone else failing does have a material effect on us and the rest of the team. It's real. The To the team, yeah.
[00:17:45.430] - Brandon
We can't ignore that. But it's like it goes back to, though, even if that's true, if you act in this way, the net positive will always be far superior than you getting caught up into trying to segregate from and or hyper fixate on what all the things are that you're a victim of. It just doesn't... One wins, one doesn't, period. It doesn't matter if you agree or not. It's just a reality that you live in this space, right? Okay. Are Part of what he was working through is he's like, this question came up, and this is a very sound question. I was glad someone asked it because I know everyone in the room is thinking it. Someone asked, Okay, so you talk through extreme ownership, and The idea was, as an individual, I am going to always find a way to take action, to take a step towards, to communicate in such a way where I'm going to try to still make some impact here.
[00:18:44.720] - Chris
I'm going to find responsibility to take in every situation.
[00:18:48.520] - Brandon
I'm going to find a way to have an impact here. Take responsibility, contribute in some meaningful way. Let's say you do that. Let's use an example. One of the ones that we used as a project manager, not doing what they need to from the field so that our JFC or our coordinator staff can complete their part of the job. Let's say AR. Critical function within our organization. Ar is dependent on multiple roles doing what they need to in a consistent basis so that our team can put out this invoice in a timely manner. What we talked about, there's this reality that sometimes happens in this relationship with a project manager where they're behind, they're overwhelmed. They're not doing the things that are necessary for me to finish my job as the JFC the AR Coordinator, whatever your name is or title is. And that's real. Is it your job to do their job? No, that's a fact. Is it realistic that you're frustrated because you are dependent to a certain extent of them doing their job? Yes, that is fact, and that's totally appropriate. Do you owe it to that individual then to go do steps for them on their behalf?
[00:19:54.460] - Brandon
No, you don't owe anybody that. But is you taking the extreme posture going to likely net you a better result than not 100% of the time. In this example, they brought up, okay, so let's say I take that posture. Let's say I commit to extreme ownership and I walk up to this project manager, and instead of me just waiting around, throwing my hands up, I go, Hey, it's really important for me to get this invoicing out in time. It's a standard that we're committed to. It's how I'm successful in my role. Is there anything I can do to help you get this information in so I can take care of what I need to take care of? Wayne used that example as a professional, mature way to take extreme ownership, go address the thing with your counterpart, and say, Is there a way for me to effectively help you get this done.
[00:20:48.480] - Chris
Liftify. Com/bloodlight. You've heard Brandon and I talk a bunch of times about the importance of Google reviews. Maybe even heard our episode with Zack Garrett, the CEO and founder. Recency, consistency, two of the most important things when it comes to maximizing the benefit from your Google reviews. Why not use an outside partner? Liftify is targeting 20 to 25 % conversion, right? So if you do a thousand jobs a year, you ought to be adding right now 200 to 250 reviews a year, every single year. If you're not doing that, you owe it to yourself to get a free demo from liftify. Com. See their system, see how it works, see how affordable it is. I promise you, you'll thank us. Liftify. Com com/bloodlight.
[00:21:32.760] - Brandon
We spend a lot of money and a lot of attention trying to get that first call. And one of the things that we do once it happens is, sometimes we leave it to chance, right? Who picks up the phone? How do they respond? How do they walk that client into a relationship with us. Well, one of the benefits of partnering with a team like answerforce. Com is we can systemize that, we can make it more consistent. We can also have backup for when our teams need that help. Somebody goes on vacation, somebody's out sick, We get a storm search, we get cat event. All sorts of things can have an impact on how we receive that client. But the most important thing is they need to know that they've chosen the right team. And so answerforce. Com can support you, be a bolt on partner to help you consistently produce an awesome onboarding experience with that first call with your client. So answerforce. Com/bloodlight. That's great.
[00:22:25.280] - Chris
Cnr magazine, we're friends with all the folks at CNR. Michelle and her team, they do a great job of keeping their ear to the ground and reporting all the important information from our industry. You want to stay up on all the M&A activity and what the latest best practices are for selling your company successfully? She's got that. Great articles about all the four quadrants of our business. Cnr is constantly pushing out great material and leveraging great writers and subject matter experts in our industry. It is the water-cooler of our industry. So if you're not subscribed, go to cnrmagazine. Com. Follow them on LinkedIn. Follow Michelle on LinkedIn. Trust us, if you're trying to stay on top of everything happening in the industry, your best destination is cnrmagazine. Com.
[00:23:08.700] - Brandon
You guys, many of you have already heard about Actionable Insights and the training and the technical expertise that they bring to the industry. But how many of you are already leveraging the Actionable Insights profile for Xactimate? That's the game changer. It's essentially an AI tool that's walking alongside of you as you write your estimate, bringing things to your attention that should be added, that could be considered. All of them items that increase our profitability, increase the effectiveness and the consistency of that scope. And it can do anything from helping a new team member assimilate some estimating best practices. And it also helps the grizzled vets add back that few % that we've just forgot over time. So actionableinsights, getinsights. Org/ floodlight, and take a look at what the Actionable Insights Xactimate profile could be doing for you and your team. And so the question inevitably was, well, what if the person takes advantage of that?
[00:24:09.000] - Chris
Yeah, and this becomes a pattern.
[00:24:10.520] - Brandon
And it becomes a pattern. And they're right. Oh, yeah. Right? This is a question that everybody asked. And I was so glad they raised their hand because I know he wasn't the only one thinking it. Everybody in the room had their version of that. A hundred %. And Wayne very clearly said, I had some ways that I talked about owners If this is a thing that we adopt in our organization, then you can't allow that person on the roster who constantly takes advantage of those around them to stay on the roster. So there are some realistic things that need to happen to protect that culture. The Wayne pretty much was like, and so what if they do? So think about that. Let's say that person fully takes advantage of your kindness and you stepping in to try to make it easier for them. The net gain, we're going to go back to this a million times, dude. The net gain for you as the individual is still so flipping high. Extreme ownership still wins. Even in a worst case scenario, the person totally takes advantage of you. You still win. Why? Because you effectively get your job done to standard and the owner see it.
[00:25:23.740] - Brandon
You effectively remove obstacles from your own success. Your peers see You successfully deliver on the things you're responsible for, and that's what's measured.
[00:25:37.330] - Chris
Everybody knows.
[00:25:38.380] - Brandon
Everybody knows you're winning. You will reap the benefit of winning. End of story. It's like what Wayne was trying to press upon, and this is what my hope is from us talking about it today. This is a non-negotiable. If you're negotiating this posture in your head, please understand understand you're wrong right now. It doesn't matter how you spin it. Are these things real? Yes. Could someone take advantage of you? Yes. Does that put extra work potentially on you? Some load or expensive energy. All of those things are true. But if you don't do this, are you free of the stress? Are you free of the impact of their behavior? Are you free of the net impact to you and the performance that you're responsible for? No. It's like extreme ownership is actually not a choice at all.
[00:26:40.330] - Chris
It's not at all dependent on another person's response to your action.
[00:26:44.390] - Brandon
Completely.
[00:26:45.210] - Chris
Or cooperation with.
[00:26:46.670] - Brandon
That's right. Now, does it mean just keep showing up with that individual and let them walk all over you? No, absolutely not. But can you get done what you need to do? And then could you go talk to a supervisor and just be like, Hey, I want to talk about a scenario. Here's what's going on. Just want you to know. And get some support. You truly can. I don't even want to get into the weeds on that. Sure. The point here is the only thing you're negotiating is what's in your head. Because the reality of it is, is when we execute, commit, and lean into extreme ownership, we will win every time. It does not matter.
[00:27:26.280] - Chris
So good, man. Here's something that's coming to mind for me. When I've been leading teams, I feel like, and this has been a repetitive mistake in my leadership journey is, I think I've clarified and I've communicated all the things that I expect. And therefore, when somebody doesn't follow through, doesn't meet the standard, doesn't perform in a way that's satisfactory to me, I get frustrated, disappointed with them, and ultimately put the blame and ownership on them. Hey, I explained to you what the deliverable was. I explained what my expectation was, and you didn't meet it. You failed, right? And it's some version of this, right? I'm oversimplifying, right? But I get to the point of either termination or my frustration reaches a boiling point. It's like, hey, what gives? What's your problem effectively? And I think after reading Extreme Ownership, and this is what stirs up for me is, I think a lot of us do that as leaders. We communicate things once or twice or even three or four times. And then when somebody fails, we place all of the responsibility on the failure on them. Hey, they had all the resources. They could have come and talked to me and ask for more assistance or help or support.
[00:28:47.710] - Chris
They didn't. Therefore, this is on them.
[00:28:50.940] - Brandon
Yeah.
[00:28:51.430] - Chris
And I think one layer of what this extreme ownership thing means to me, and then I'm still, but without a doubt, is a growing edge for me, is in those moments of frustration and disappointment with a peer, a downline team member, whatever, is to instead, like that Jim Dethmer thing, ask, Okay, what is my role in them not meeting expectations?
[00:29:16.690] - Brandon
Starting there- That is extreme ownership.
[00:29:18.120] - Chris
Starting there and asking the question, Okay, I did tell them some things, but did I tell them the right things? Did I tell them the right things at the right time? Did they have the necessary background information, experience, understanding to be able to hear that and take action on those things? Or did I assume a bunch of stuff? There are so many things that go into a person's ability to execute on instructions and tasking that they've been given. I think oftentimes as a leader, the The mistake I've made is I have assumed, in a lot of cases, that somebody has the same makeup, background, experience, and skillset as I have. Therefore, I told them everything they need to know. Their problem if they didn't execute.
[00:30:14.550] - Brandon
Yeah. Well, I'd even counter that similar posture, right? Is as an owner or a key leader, taking extreme ownership also means being decisive when you can articulate that those things have been done. So instead of allowing the standard to begin to slip and the line for our expectation to begin to blur, extreme ownership can look like you stepping in and making a decision, even if it feels uncomfortable or their short term impact to the business, because you are not going to allow you or your team to be a victim to someone that's not willing to commit to the standard of the process. So it's like this is This is not an either or. This applies to our entire book of business. A couple of other examples because I think they're super relevant. One from our seat as a consultant, and one as the seat of an owner regarding, let's say, something as simple as process because that's the vein that you're in. How many of us are running businesses based on tribal knowledge? We've done things the way we've done them. Every time we onboard employees through osmosis, jokingly, no, through on-the-job training, whatever, we teach them our methodology, and we produce work, and we go out and we do our job.
[00:31:37.580] - Brandon
If I'm being honest, extreme ownership would look like, even though you may not owe it to anyone, maybe you don't have to do it. Extreme ownership as an owner then would look like establishing very clear standards, SOPs and deliverables in your business. Can you do it through tribal knowledge? Sure. But extreme ownership looks like an owner or a key leader being intentional about what service delivery their team is going to deliver on. The way we do that is by creating standards. Yeah. Right? Yeah. Okay. Hang in the pocket with me a little bit. We're a consulting agency. At the end of the day, this is like those truths. At the end of the day, no one realistically expects me to fly in, take over their business, and put all the things in place that we would like to see them execute on for the health of themselves, their business, and the people that work for them. As a consulting firm, we're a partner. As a consulting firm that's specific to our niche industry, we're a partner that's got a lot of visual experience and real-life experience into what wins at scale. Our job is to help you understand those things and to integrate them in your business.
[00:32:56.280] - Brandon
But I can't physically do it for you. All right. We're a younger restoration consulting company here at Floodbite. We are still iterating processes and systems. It's our job to always assess ourselves and say, how can we get better? Is there something else we can do? Is there more to the system that we need to develop? We've said yes to that. We have some hard core shit going on right now that's going to be epic. Can't wait towards the end of the year.
[00:33:24.420] - Chris
All right.
[00:33:26.170] - Brandon
That being said, though, we all had to have some real hard conversations I've had some conversations recently when we're working with a company, a team, and we don't see them yielding the results that we would love to see them get. I'm going to be honest with you, nine times out of 10, this is hard to say, nine times out of 10, if we're just unedited honest, it is because we have an owner that likes the idea of their business getting better, but they're not fucking willing to do the work to make it happen. I can't do it for you. That's a truth. That's going back to the guy or gal that says, Yeah, but I really need this thing to happen in order for me to be successful. This is our version of that. And yet, extreme ownership looked like us as a team going, Yes, that's true. And what of this can we own? What else can we do?
[00:34:22.280] - Chris
What could we have done? Yeah. Extreme ownership is about the end. It isn't disregarding all the these other data points. And it is. I mean, that's been a very real conversation here is, okay, and what could we have done to do better stage setting? What could we have done to better articulate what our expectations of them are going to be, what their business is going to need from them. What could we have? Is there a better way we could have delivered certain core bits of training? Or is there a better way that we could have applied accountability? A hundred %.
[00:34:59.860] - Brandon
And guess what? Again, keeping this theme of, okay, what if? What happens if at the end of the day, all the changes I make in our system won't actually make that one client any better? Yeah, that could totally be true. And there's zero doubt in my mind that every ounce of energy and effort we put into thinking through that and making modifications to our process will only yield better results moving forward. It's like there is no downside.
[00:35:36.040] - Chris
This morning, as I was drinking my coffee, I was scanning all the industry groups and stuff on Facebook and LinkedIn and all this. Facebook has particularly animated the industry groups there. It's great. I mean that affectionately, but we often will use that as a way to sound off about how we feel about this carrier, that here, or this TPA program or that. And in this particular thread I was following was all about these TPA programs. And there was a restore that was talking about how many millions of dollars they were earning on TPAs at margin, and they were very happy with some of the programs they were on. And then there's all these people piling on about, you're just crazy. And it reminds me of the stance that you and I, ultimately, early days when we were operating. We were on TPA programs for a period of time. And I remember one of the conversations we had as a leadership team was, okay, what if? What if we develop a way, a system that addresses the requirements, helps us set our PALM scores, all the things. It puts us in the good graces of the program.
[00:36:49.140] - Chris
What if we did that, we optimized our system to that? How much better are we going to be able to deliver service to Mr. And Mrs. Jones on a routine basis. Correct. If we're creating a system that delivers the 12-hour report and the daily cadence of this or that, or all these different requirements and stuff, the photo documentation, everything that that TPA wants that's so unreasonable, how much more likely are we to handle the most difficult Mrs. Jones easily? If we build our system around these very strenuous and rigorous requirements that the TPAs have, it's not to throw out that there's other things that make the TPA programs difficult or less ideal.
[00:37:37.180] - Brandon
It's just not the topic.
[00:37:38.050] - Chris
But the point is that if we look at that challenge and say, okay, what if we build a solution for that rather than bitching and moaning about it. What's the opportunity in that? And I really truly, I think that was something that ended up differentiating us is that we did. We successfully built programs that allowed us to succeed in that program environment. And when we apply that same rigor to the standard water loss in Mrs Jones house, Mrs Jones was really happy, too.
[00:38:07.690] - Brandon
Absolutely. I think what it pointed towards, the benefit to us, regardless of how we felt about it and regardless of the truths that may be in existence in that relationship, at the end of the day, it just made it easier for us to deal with that crap anyways. It's like, again, no matter how you slice it, there's always a net gain of taking the most extreme level of ownership over every situation and over every relationship that you possibly can. There's just no downside. There's no legitimate downside. The downside is in your head. Or you're getting stuck on a principle, or you're getting stuck on wanting to be right. You're not getting stuck on we play to win.
[00:38:52.730] - Chris
Yeah, people may say, well, the downside is effort. It's like, well, it goes back to this principle of choose your pain, right? Yeah. You're going to put in the effort one way or another.
[00:39:05.120] - Brandon
No matter what.
[00:39:05.790] - Chris
Getting yourself out of a knot that you tied yourself in because you're bitching and moaning and pissing yourself off and neglecting that thing. Or you're going to put the effort into building a solution and a system around that thing. And what effort do you want to put in? That's right. It's true. What environment do you want to work on? What team do you want to build?
[00:39:24.010] - Brandon
And I think no matter how you slice it, the world always feels a whole lot better when you're contributing in a meaningful way. As soon as we become a victim, that word is heavy in meaning. It's heavy in meaning. And I want to be honoring of that term and definition. I am not making little of someone who feels as if they are a real victim to what's going on around them. What I'm saying is, is we can easily make the definition of victim way too fucking broad. And when we do that, we limit our ability to succeed and we dishonor those who have actually been victims of real life circumstances. There's some stuff there that we need to be cognizant of. Okay, we're getting preachy, but I love it. Individual, I think we are starting to get a grip. That no matter how you slice this, you can what if this thing to death. At the end of the day, our commitment to believing and living out this posture of there's There's always something I can do. There's always an action I can take. There's always a little bit more I can affect in order to stay a positive contributor, to still own outcomes.
[00:40:42.220] - Brandon
Health of our organization or how do we think about this as a collective. I think it starts with you have to very clearly be able to communicate what actual extreme ownership looks like, especially in the place of your business. You You as a leader, you as an owner, come to terms with what it means in definition, what it means in practice. Do a good job of understanding in your own world what it looks like, how you practice this, how you live this out, so that you can communicate this thing to your team. Because, think about, we go back to that relationship piece. What if your staff count in your organization is 50 people? And what if you had collectively 50 people all looking at their own individual lanes, their own roles and responsibilities, and they are so committed to winning in their role that they adopt an extreme ownership posture. Think about it. Will stuff still go wrong? Yep. Will variables affect our jobs? Yep. Will we be 100% successful across the book? No. But imagine if you had If you had 50 people in your company so committed to themselves succeeding that they take extreme ownership, and instead of us all standing around with our hands up, pointing at the people around us, waiting for them to do whatever it is we need them to do so that we can start succeeding, think about the motion and the action and the activity that's successfully taking place in your company.
[00:42:23.820] - Brandon
If I had 50 people committed to extreme ownership in their own seat, It's great.
[00:42:30.480] - Chris
But it starts with the I.
[00:42:32.990] - Brandon
Yes.
[00:42:33.710] - Chris
You and I have never, we have never seen a team that embodies that, where the owner didn't embody that.
[00:42:45.190] - Brandon
Thousand %.
[00:42:45.520] - Chris
Ever.
[00:42:46.160] - Brandon
And so I think, hopefully, the takeaway from this show is, if you want that, there is no shortcut.
[00:42:56.110] - Chris
It can't be hired out. There is no The way to circumvent your role in that, the only way to establish that culture is for you to bring it as an owner or senior leader. There's just no other workaround. Hands down. I would even go so far as to say those of you that are more in and absent absentee owner role, you have a full-time general manager that's day to day running the operations, I think that is still true. If you're one of those absentee owners that you're off boating, and golfing, and traveling, and enjoying the fruits of your labor, then you want to instill that in your GM and downline team, and you periodically just flake out on your owner meetings with your GM. Something came up. Something came up, right? Or your GM schedule is an all company meeting, and you agree to be there, and then last minute, I got this thing. Good luck establishing that ethic across your company. Yeah.
[00:43:54.310] - Brandon
It's going to be an up-to-date.
[00:43:55.360] - Chris
It doesn't work. It doesn't work. It's always going to be in conflict with the culture that you're trying to establish. Your behavior is going to sabotage your efforts to establish that in your company.
[00:44:07.840] - Brandon
Agree. And I think, too, just as important or just like leveling up our ability to communicate very convictedly, if that's even a word, and very intentionally around calling out the elephant in the room that everyone's thinking when you start talking about personal and extreme ownership. You know your team has dysfunction. You know there's silos. You know that certain team members and roles don't communicate super effectively. And you know inevitably there's challenges that exist in the handoff between teams. It is literally universal. So call it out. When you're teaching your team about extreme ownership, do not skirt the reality that half of that room is saying to themselves, Yeah, but you know Sally, you know Jojo, whatever the person or the thing is, and call that out and remind them. Yes, and even in the face of that, if you own this, if you take this posture, the net gain for you and us is still so much higher than not. It's not a negotiation. There's no choice to make. It's in or out. Then here's a final thought on this. I think just like standards, extreme ownership is the standard. You can't have 70% of your company committed to it and 30% not.
[00:45:34.290] - Brandon
We can't ask our people to live out extreme ownership and then force the environment that they're constantly at odds delivering on that. When we have people doing what is necessary and taking extreme ownership, part of our job as a leader or as an owner, living out the same practice has to be that you have to be decisive and you need to remove misfits from the culture of your organization. There's no other way. No other way. It's just like A players leave when too many C players build up space on the bench. It's the same thing. If you have a preaching extreme ownership and then you don't take it.
[00:46:16.260] - Chris
Everybody knows. Everybody knows this isn't real.
[00:46:20.910] - Brandon
Everybody knows. Okay, guys. Now, this is what, again, these aren't preaching sessions at you. This is us. We just share I shared that story with our own firm. If we don't eat, sleep, and breathe this, our team doesn't win either. One last good reminder, we're going to close shop, okay? Winners beat losers. Champions beat winners. Teams made up of people that are taking extreme ownership for themselves, their deliverables, and the role they carry in your organization will build championship teams capable of beating the best.
[00:47:01.320] - Chris
Oh, man. If these conversations hold value to you guys that are listening to this, one of the best ways that you can thank us and thank our creative team who puts these podcasts together is to share it. Please send it as a text message. Copy the link, send it with your team. We've had clients and friends that have said, Yeah, I had my team do this for homework. Listen to that episode. And then we came to our leadership meeting and talked about this or that. It's really fun for us to hear of those things, but share it. Share it on your wall and LinkedIn, share it on Facebook, all the things. And then certainly, if you're looking for a partner, a battle buddy, to help your company get from here to where you want to be, reach out to us at floodlightgrp. Com. Com, and start with theaudit. It's all right. Till next time.
[00:47:50.770] - Brandon
See you. All right, everybody. Hey, thanks for joining us for another episode of Head, Heart, and Boots.
[00:47:57.960] - Chris
And if you're enjoying the show, if you love this episode, please hit follow, formerly known as subscribe, write us a review, or share this episode with a friend. Share it on LinkedIn, share it via text, whatever. It all helps. Thanks for listening.
